“ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN AFRICA ” Legal Framework and Social Responsibility

I. INTRODUCTION

“Africa is not fully prepared to seize the enormous opportunities that AI presents” H.E. CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, in first edition of AI Blueprint in 2021. ChatGpt, Claude, Gemini, and the more recent DeepSeek and Qwen…., Artificial Intelligence is now everywhere. No longer the exclusive domain of the big companies, AI is nowadays found in all areas of activities. Education, finance, cybersecurity, e-commerce, transport and logistics – nothing seems to be able to escape this technological onslaught. Africa is no exception, given the potential and progress offered by AI. Among the many AI-focused innovations are PlantVillage and Farmer.Chat in the field of agriculture, PayBox in the field of finance, or Masakhane in the field of natural language processing (NLP) and localization.

However, although there have been some notable advances on the subject, it appears that the African continent is lagging furthest behind in terms of AI innovation. And even so, we (in Africa) seem to be only at the beginning of the discoveries of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). On the other side, in view of the excitement generated by this technology, it is appropriate to consider texts that will enable it to be regulated. But How can Africa develop a robust legal framework and foster social responsibility while embracing AI? we will try to explore possible answers in the light of the current state of AI regulation in Africa

II.  THE CURRENT STATE OF LEGAL FRAMEWORKS FOR AI IN AFRICA

It is important to highlight both continental and national initiatives regarding artificial intelligence legislation. The first continental initiatives date back to October 2013 with the adoption of the Smart Africa Manifesto in Kigali. Although it does not specifically concern AI, its goal is to accelerate socio-economic development through the use of ICT. More precisely, African heads of state committed to “promoting innovation and technology adapted to the African context, focused on development and scalable, in order to bring benefits in education, health, business, agriculture, and other key sectors” (Principle 1). At the time of its adoption, the Smart Africa Manifesto was signed by seven African countries (Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Mali, Gabon, and Burkina Faso) in 2013, and later by all 53 African countries during the 22nd Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly in Addis Ababa in January 2014.

In 2019, during the 3rd Ordinary Session of the African Union’s Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT, state parties ministers of communication and ICT adopted the Sharm El Sheikh Declaration in Egypt. Through this declaration, they committed to create a working group on artificial intelligence (AI), develop a unified African position on AI, strengthen AI capabilities across the continent, and establish a framework for its responsible development throughout Africa.

In 2021, with the support of the Africa Smart Alliance and other partners, the AI for Africa Blueprint was published. This initiative aimed to “highlight the most relevant opportunities and challenges in AI development and usage for Africa and how to address them” (Page 14). This action plan provides concrete recommendations to help States implementing national strategies. It offers guidelines that can be used by states to formulate their own policies, adapted to their specific contexts. That same year, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted Resolution 473, which concerns AI, robotics, and emerging technologies. This resolution calls on member states to “include these technologies in their agenda and work towards establishing a comprehensive governance framework” (see Sections 4 and 5).

In 2023, the AI for Africa report was published by the African Union High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD). This report advocates for a unified policy approach to AI, allowing Africa to explore its benefits while mitigating risks.

More recently, in July 2024, the African Union released the Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy. This strategy proposes an inclusive, people-centered, development-focused approach, structured around five key areas of intervention and fifteen policy recommendations.

At the national level, among the 55 African countries:

• 4 have a national AI policy in place.
• 7 have adopted a national AI strategy.
• 15 have expert bodies or task forces dedicated to AI governance (AI, Governance for Africa Toolkit Series, Thomson Reuters Foundation, November 2023, p.12).
• 41 have personal data protection laws, which include provisions related to AI, such as protection against automated decision-making (source: Africa Data Protection Legislation).

These datas reveals that while African countries do not yet have specific national AI laws—nor a regional law equivalent to the EU AI Act (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32024R1689 ), they are actively working to stay engaged in the global AI race.

Challenges in AI Regulation

However, AI regulation still faces numerous challenges. One major challenge is the Collingridge Dilemma. This principle states that in the early stages of technological development, the potential uses and consequences of a new technology are either poorly understood or known only by those closely involved in its development. Over time, the effects of the technology on people and society, as well as decisions related to its development, become clearer. At this stage, however, technological development may be harder to govern and regulate due to entrenched approaches, applications, and structures. Changing these becomes more difficult, time-consuming, and costly (More information).

In African context, regulating AI too early or too late could be detrimental: either it would fail to account for future advancements or it would lose control over them. Consequently, African countries must rely on broad and extensive legislation for predictability, which may come at the cost of regulatory clarity.

Another major challenge for AI frameworks in Africa is the quality and quantity of available data. Africa has diverse populations with different languages, cultures, and socio-economic contexts. It is essential to develop ethical AI systems that account for this diversity and minimize bias to uphold principles such as accountability and transparency (Chinasa T. Okolo, Kehinde Aruleba, and George Obaido, Responsible AI in Africa—Challenges and Opportunities, in Responsible AI in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

Unfortunately, many African countries lack large, high-quality datasets. Africa primarily consumes AI products developed in industrialized nations, meaning that most AI systems deployed on the continent are trained on foreign data, values, and social considerations (Damian Okaibedi Eke, Kutoma Wakunuma, and Simisola Akintoye, Responsible AI in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) (Springer Link). As a result, AI models can be incomplete, biased, or inaccurate, failing to reflect Africa’s diversity.

Beyond these primary challenges, AI regulation in Africa must also address universal challenges such as:

• Algorithmic discrimination
• Safety and security concerns
• Human oversight and accountability (Thomson Reuters Toolkit Series).

To navigate these complexities, it is crucial to design AI legislation that prioritizes social responsibility within an African context.

III. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS

Social Responsibility of AI can be defined as a  “human value-driven process where values such as Fairness, Transparency, Accountability, Reliability and Safety, Privacy and Security, and Inclusiveness are the principles; designing Socially Responsible AI Algorithms is the means; and addressing the social expectations of generating shared value – enhancing both AI’s ability and benefits to society – is the main objective”.(Lu Cheng, K. Varshney, Huan Liu, Socially Responsible AI Algorithms: Issues, Purposes, and Challenges, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 71 (2021) 1137-1181)

Social responsibility in the context of an AI legal framework in Africa involves ensuring that the development and deployment of artificial intelligence technologies align with ethical principles, respect human rights, and contribute positively to societal well-being across the continent. In other words, it means that regulations in this area must ensure that AI is developed and deployed fairly, safely, and inclusively, considering its impact on people’s lives, especially in African communities where digital access, economic conditions, and legal protections may vary.

Practically speaking, when drafting AI regulations, African countries must take into account social responsibility by emphasizing on the following principles:

1. Fairness & Inclusion: Ensuring AI does not reinforce biases, discrimination, or social inequalities. For example, facial recognition systems should work equally well for all ethnic groups.

2. Data Protection & Privacy: Protecting people’s personal data from misuse, especially in regions with weak legal frameworks. Although significant progress has been made in terms of the adoption of laws on the protection of personal data, the application of these laws and the establishment of an Office responsible for enforcing them still remain an objective to be attained.
3. Transparency & Accountability: Making sure AI decisions are explainable and that people can challenge unfair outcomes.
4. Job Impact & Economic Equity: Addressing how AI affects employment, ensuring job losses are managed, and promoting AI-driven opportunities.
5. Safety & Security: Preventing AI from being misused for cybercrime, surveillance abuse, or misinformation.
6. AI for Social Good: Encouraging AI applications in education, healthcare, agriculture, and climate change to improve lives rather than just maximizing profit

To achieve regulations that takes into account the African social context, it is necessary, among other things, to:

• Involve local communities in AI decision-making processes.
• Encourage public awareness campaigns to demystify AI and promote trust.
• Foster a multi-stakeholder approach to AI regulation, involving regulatory bodies, AI developers, academics, and civil society (State of AI Regulation in Africa: Trends and Developments report, Tech Hive Advisory, Center for Law & Innovation, 2024, p.23).
• Adopt innovative and flexible regulatory models to keep pace with AI’s rapidly evolving technological landscape. This includes the use of regulatory sandboxes, which would allow innovation to thrive within a controlled environment, enabling the observation of both the effects of the technology and the legislation while protecting populations from the aforementioned risks (Ibid).

CONCLUSION

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is more present in Africa than ever, and governments have already recognized its impact on its people. However, instead of merely focusing on the latest “hype” and excitement surrounding AI adoption, it is crucial to first examine the short and long term effects of these technologies. Regulations in that area should ensure that AI aligns with the African context and become an ally in Africa’s development. As Dr. Pedro Conceição emphasized: “Instead of looking at AI and digital technologies as something that fascinates us by the extent to which it can perhaps surpass what people can do, the focus should be thinking through the institutions and the policies that we can implement to enable these technologies to augment what people can do. To augment human development.”(2024 African Economic Conference (AEC) in Gaborone, Botswana).